Police said the thief took small amounts of cash and loose change, a LCBO gift card, wallets, a camera and a GPS unit.

In eight of the cases, according to investigators, he also smashed vehicle windows and caused about $1,100 in damage.

Around 5 p.m. the same day, police tracked down a suspect on Grand Avenue East.

The 23-year-old man, of no fixed address, is charged with seven counts of mischief under $5,000 and 11 counts of theft under $5,000. He remained in custody Tuesday waiting for a bail hearing. Police didn’t release his name.

Ron Dunn with Windsor’s Downtown Mission said he doesn’t condone breaking the law, but he understands how a person might feel like they have no place to turn.

“We don’t condone it, from a personal level I can understand it,” said Dunn, the mission’s director of development and community relations. “If I have to choose between my kid and your change, I’m taking the change. Places like the mission, I think, help to reduce crime. We offer hope. A lot of people act in desperation. But if we are able to reach out to them before they become that desperate, if we are able to show them a bit of human kindness before they get to that spot, then maybe we could help curb that kind of activity.”

But Dunn was quick to point out that not all people who are down on their luck commit crimes.

“There are lots of contributing factors to theft,” he said. “I wouldn’t want the readers to be left with the impression that because you’re homeless you might break into a car. There are lots of people here that are homeless. We’re feeding about 250 a day right now, and they’re either homeless or poor, and to my knowledge none of them broke into a car on the way in.”

But he added that without some kind of safety net, everyone has a breaking point.

“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” said Dunn. “Certainly, we don’t condone any kind of unlawful activity. But that goes to show you about the importance of a place like the Downtown Mission. I maintain that crime rates could even go up if places like us didn’t exist.”

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